Discuss a cognitive explanation of gender development. Refer to at least one other explanation of gender development in your answer. (10 marks)
Discuss a cognitive explanation of gender development. Refer to at least one other explanation of gender development in your answer. (10 marks)
The cognitive approach to explaining gender focuses on how the child understands gender. Its how the mental processes enable a child to learn sex-role. Cognitive psychologists believe this happens through a process of gradually developing this understanding. The first psychologist to suggest the cognitive approach to gender development was Lawrence Kohlberg (1966). Kohlberg's theory stated that a child's understanding of gender will develop with age and therefore their gender development increases as they get older. Kohlberg believed that this understanding developed in stages and in each of these a child’s thinking and understanding becomes sophisticated.
Kohlberg’s stages of gender development were as follows; Gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy. During the gender identity stage the child is around the ages of 2-3 years old. They are able to easily identify their own sex as well as the sex of others. They are also able to apply gender labels such as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’. The second stage, known as gender stability, occurs at around the ages of 3-4 years old. During this stage a child’s understanding begins to become more complex and they begin to realise that sex stays the same and stable over time and recognise that the sex they are now will remain the same in the future. Finally, the final stage of Kohlberg’s cognitive development theory would be ‘gender constancy’ which children tend to reach at the ages of 4-7 years old. This is when a child realised that gender remains the same across time and also different situations and superficial changes in appearance. Only when a child reaches this stage do can they be said to fully understand gender.
Kohlberg’s three stages in gender development understanding have been found to apply to children in a variety of cultures and that the stages were
The cognitive approach to explaining gender focuses on how the child understands gender. Its how the mental processes enable a child to learn sex-role. Cognitive psychologists believe this happens through a process of gradually developing this understanding. The first psychologist to suggest the cognitive approach to gender development was Lawrence Kohlberg (1966). Kohlberg's theory stated that a child's understanding of gender will develop with age and therefore their gender development increases as they get older. Kohlberg believed that this understanding developed in stages and in each of these a child’s thinking and understanding becomes sophisticated.
Kohlberg’s stages of gender development were as follows; Gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy. During the gender identity stage the child is around the ages of 2-3 years old. They are able to easily identify their own sex as well as the sex of others. They are also able to apply gender labels such as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’. The second stage, known as gender stability, occurs at around the ages of 3-4 years old. During this stage a child’s understanding begins to become more complex and they begin to realise that sex stays the same and stable over time and recognise that the sex they are now will remain the same in the future. Finally, the final stage of Kohlberg’s cognitive development theory would be ‘gender constancy’ which children tend to reach at the ages of 4-7 years old. This is when a child realised that gender remains the same across time and also different situations and superficial changes in appearance. Only when a child reaches this stage do can they be said to fully understand gender.
Kohlberg’s three stages in gender development understanding have been found to apply to children in a variety of cultures and that the stages were